Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Questions For The Competition is a weekly column that addresses our issues with the brackets of other bracketology "experts." This week's questions are reserved for ESPN's Joe Lunardi, SI.com's Andy Glockner, and CBSSports.com and CollegeRPI.com's Jerry Palm. Keep in mind that these questions are about each expert's most recent bracket, all of which were released before Monday's games.

Joe Lunardi (ESPN) - Feb. 8 BracketYou aren't the only person to (stupidly) have this, but if the season ended today, the A-10 would really get as many bids as the Big East? Really??

Not only do you only have six Big East teams in, your last FIVE teams out are all from the Big East? Way to make the tough decisions on the bubble, Joe.

We're happy to see you finally put Florida in...welcome to reality.

How is St. Mary's a 9? They have a better resume than Florida?

How is BYU still a 4 seed after losing at UNLV?

Andy Glockner (SI.com) - Feb. 8 BracketYou did Lunardi one better - six A-10 and FIVE Big East? There is a zero percent chance that the second best league in the country (RPI-wise at least) would get as many as the sixth best conference.

Why did you hate on Virginia Tech on Twitter...and then put them in your bracket? (We knew you'd have the Hokies in.)

22 comments:

Good catch, Jeff. He has Butler playing Clemson which cannot happen since they met back in November. With all the bracketing mistakes he has had lately we wonder who is actually putting his bracket together. We'll let you know when Lunardi reads this post and makes the change.

Technically, this is allowed. At the very end of the principles it is mentioned that "if possible, rematches of regular-season games should be avoided in the first and second rounds" and "if possible, rematches of previous years’ tournament games should be avoided in the first and second rounds". There have also been some recent examples of the final bracket having these types of rematches. So it might have been IMPOSSIBLE for him to avoid this kind of matchup, or he was too lazy to change it and redo his entire bracket. Or, of course, it could just be a mistake. We are a lot more careful when putting together our bracket to avoid these types of things, ESPECIALLY in the first round because that just seems a little ore egregious. Sometimes this comes at the cost of not putting middle-seeded teams closer to home.

are you saying thats impossible to avoid that matchup?? please....lunardi is getting as bad as glockner these days. Glockner had the balls to even include UNC in his bubble watch...like thats not because the team name is North Carolina

No, I was just saying he could use that an excuse, that it is not an absolute 100% requirement. Actually it was probably easily avoidable, by just switching Butler and Northern Iowa as they are both 6 seeds and neither have conference conflicts to worry about, being from single-bid conferences.

You guys are right about Glockner. He made a mistake by putting Virginia Tech in the field. Does Glockner go by win-loss record and ignore the fact that the Hokies have beaten really bad teams and even lost to NIT type teams. Why would Andy include the Hokies over teams that have played tougher schedules and picked up quality wins? Will Andy stick with the Hokies if they lose in Raleigh?

Virginia Tech is deserving....if they played in the A10 with Dayton they would look even better. Why do people penalize good teams in power conferences and reward decent teams in weak conferences. You hear mediocre teams in power conferences, but they are just renaming the teams...those mediocre teams would be stellar in those weak conferences. There is a reason why Dayton doesnt play MD, Duke, Carolina, UK, Kansas, UCONN, CUSE, etc...

Anonymous, Your Va Tech argument would hold more water if they had to play top conference teams like Maryland and Duke twice. Dayton is a very good team and could hold their own in the ACC. Just ask Geogia Tech how good Dayton is. The ACC is not as strong as past seasons. Can you imagine how poor of record Virginia Tech would have if they were still in the Big East? I can definately see why the Hokies ran away to the ACC. Seth Greenberg can schedule cupcakes early and then only have to play the ACC elite teams only once.

Gary Williams -- I think that is the point. .500 in the ACC means you are a lock (or at least in). See, e.g., Georgia Tech (5-4), Florida St. (5-4) and Clemson (4-5). All in. See, contra, Dayton -- not in. Conclusion, the same Dayton team would be in a much better position if a mediocre ACC team than a good A-10 team.

Elitist ACC fans make me chuckle. Year after year Duke is over seeded by the committee, then gets pummeled early in the tournament. The Big East has owned Duke in recent years with Villanova, UConn, and West Virginia ousting the Devils in the tournament and Georgetown and Pitt beating them in the regular season. The Big East is much stronger than the ACC this year. Florida State gets a lot of hype on this blog, but when have the Seminoles last won a tournament game? Same deal with Clemson.

Bracketology 101, Does the committee select teams based on the conference they are in? or by their individual resumes? You guys are ripping other bracketologists for including 6 A-10 teams, but it is hard to argue that those 6 teams aren't indeed worthy of a bid. My thinking is that the Big East will get 7 or 8 teams and the A-10 will get 6. Are you still sticking to your "The A-10 will not get more than 4 teams" stance?

I am shocked that Gary Williams is championing the ACC. That is a shock. Not!

theres a reason why any of these A10 teams that people are saying that should be in the dance do not seek out games against really good power conference teams.....actually I take that back, Charlotte did a couple years ago at a neutral site. LOSS...what a surprise!! There is only two schools that even consider this...Gonzaga and Memphis. It's too bad that Dayton, Xavier, Rhode Island, etc.....wont even sniff out really tough matchups. Let's penalize power conference teams with an SOS under 10....and reward the A10 and The Valley and The Horizon Leagues for the fact that they are really good against kind of good teams that never play anybody dominant.

We'll play any of these small schools anytime, anywhere....but somehow I don't see them going to Durham or College Park, MD anytime soon

There is no way a 1-seed in Syracuse ends up in Oklahoma City for the first weekend, and if it does happen, it would be because the selection committee ignored their own rules. Look for them to be in Buffalo or Providence.

By the way, I just checked that bracket, and there are so many things wrong with it, I don't even want to spend time discussing it other than to say that it breaks just about every rule the committee has to follow.

The A10 and other (non power) conferences attempt to schedule as tough a ooc as possible! As Jim Beoheim put it, and I think he spoke for all the "big 6" in general after losing at home to R.I. two yrs. ago, that there isn't anything in it for us to scedule against high mid-majors! It seems the thought across the "big six" board is to get the W's ooc, and our strong conf. sos will bring us back up! VT is a perfect ex.! In general,(unless you are a "name school")like Temple,or Gonzaga, the best a mid major can now hope for is an away/neutral against a top team. And put a VT or any big 6 team into the A10 the first yr. may reap wins, but now you have to face what other mid majors do! Lack of respect, recruting problems, and ooc sceduling vs. top opponents!

Bracketology 101 has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal and on ESPN Radio affiliates across the country. The site is designed to serve as a more reliable, more accurate alternative to the Bracketology selections of other major sports websites.
Rather than predict teams based on the season ending today, or make wild predictions of the future, Bracketology 101 uses a unique "projection-prediction" method of selecting teams, giving fans a much more realistic idea of where their favorite teams stand in the eyes of the selection committee.
While other bracketologists favor conferences or teams or rely entirely on RPI rankings in making their picks, we factor in a team's resume as a whole - big wins, bad losses, in and out-of-conference wins, upcoming schedules, conference tournament sites, and each team's overall strengths and weaknesses compared to other teams on the bubble. Our "Field of 68" is updated every Monday throughout the season, with daily updates coming during Championship Week.

Join The B101 Team!

Do you want to advertise on Bracketology 101 during March Madness? Do you want to sponsor one of our upcoming daily brackets? E-mail us at bracketologyblog@yahoo.com for ad rates and details.

Follow B101 On Twitter

Bracketology 101 is now on Twitter! To follow B101 on Twitter, just click on the Twitter logo above.

How B101 Stacks Up

The numbers speak for themselves: Over the last five years, Bracketology 101 is the most accurate bracketology site on the Internet. We produced the best bracket in 2006, the second best in 2007 and 2008, and the fifth best in 2009. We are the only bracketologists to produce a Top 5 bracket four of the last five years. No other bracketologist has placed in the Top 5 more than twice. For a complete breakdown of our bracket stats from the last four years, click on the “We’re #1!” logo above.

The 40-60 Club

On top of correctly predicting 64 of the 65 tournament teams in 2008, Bracketology 101 also became the first bracketology site to ever seed 40 teams exactly and 60 teams within one seed line of their actual seed. Through 2010, we are the only bracketology site to earn this distinction.